» There were so many dead, Greeley mortuaries were forced into action.

» There were reports people were deputized to prevent looters in the days following the flood.

Jay Schell hopped out of his grandparents' car in the parking lot of Schell's Studios, a longtime Greeley printing shop.

They were heading to their cabin at Cedar Cove in the Big Thompson Canyon, and 13-year-old Jay didn't have any clean clothes.

He'd go with his dad, Allen Schell, back to Denver on that Saturday, July 31, 1976. He'd come back up Sunday.

"I'll bring you some clothes tomorrow; just go with your grandparents," Allen replied, according to daughter Jan Schell's recollection.

Big Thompson Flood Anniversary

Recommended Stories For You

So Jay hopped back into his grandparents' car.

He was indecisive, Jan recalls. But finally, Jay decided to go with his dad, and they would join his grandparents on Sunday.

"Finally, when the decision was made, it's like, 'OK, we'll see you tomorrow,'" Jan said.

They never did. Claude and Mae Schell had their riverside cabin washed away in the Big Thompson Flood 40 years ago. One hundred forty-four people died that night, including the Schells.

The flood got massive, nationwide coverage, taking place on the weekend of the state's centennial celebration and the nation's bicentennial. Volumes of news articles and anniversary stories have been written since.

Today, Jan said she wants to tell her story for the first time.

"This is our family story," Jan said by way of beginning. "I can only attribute it to fate or angels, or whatever you want to believe in."

Jan was a 19-year-old college student, pursuing the Ballet West program at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. She had planned to go home that weekend to surprise her family.

Her dad and brother were doing what they often did, helping Claude and Mae at their Greeley print shop.

"We had all thought about going and being in the canyon that night," Jan said, fighting back tears during a phone interview from her California home. "Then, for some reason, we all decided not to go. In hindsight, it's like, we would have all been there but for the grace of God."

Athletes from the United States were busy representing their country at the Montreal Olympics.

Coloradans, on the weekend of Aug. 1, were celebrating their state's centennial.

More than 4,000 packed into the Big Thompson Canyon that weekend. What happened next echoes through the decades in the memories of 144 souls washed away by a raging river.

Four hours of rain above Drake near Estes Park — more than a foot — swept down the canyon walls and created a wall of water that decimated U.S. 34 and nearly everything else in that canyon.

Folks who recall it say they've never seen anything like it before or since. It was as though a giant bucket had been tipped over in the sky, as one person put it.

Claude moved slowly. He had been dealing with some injuries, and used a walker to get from the print shop to the car before heading up to the canyon.

While he scooted out the door, Mae gathered paperwork — invoices and the like — to take to the cabin. Busywork is always easier with the calming sounds of the river babbling near the cabin. It was part of the routine. They were just downriver from the Old Loveland Power Plant, between Drake and the Colorado Cherry Co.

At the cabin later that night, they heard about some rain up higher in the canyon.

Rain had been falling, sure. But they had no idea how much.

Mae called on her neighbor, Dale Schearers, to help her pull a pump up closer to the house to keep it from washing away in what was sure to be a little bit of high water. That was part of the routine, too, until it wasn't.

Through that neighbor, Jan pieces together the details of that night.

Schearers must have gotten to the Schells about 9 p.m.

When they got back to the front of the cabin, the lights went out.

"In hindsight, we know that's when the floodwaters hit the power plant," Jan said. "The clock on the wall stopped at 9:26 p.m."

Mae went to get Dale a flashlight. By the time Schearers took two steps with the flashlight, water was ankle deep. Several steps later, Schearers turned the flashlight upriver and saw a wall of water coming at him.

Somehow, Schearers managed to grab hold of a tree. He stayed there the rest of the night. He had to watch as Claude and Mae's cabin washed away with the couple still inside.

Jan took the first flight out of Salt Lake City the following day. They found her grandparents' house wedged up against a willow tree. They were able to go in and gather what was salvageable. She remembers, curiously, quite a bit was. The water reached only so far up the walls.

"There were things untouched above a certain level," Jan said.

A set of salt and pepper shakers, for example. The clock on the wall was spared, too.

Jan says their grandparents' deaths probably affected Jay the most. She says she thinks Jay felt guilty, like if he could have been there, he could have saved them.

"It left the biggest hole imaginable," Jay said, through his sister. "It has never healed."